Untitled

Wood Construction

In May of 2010, I received a phone call from my friend Siva who runs a summer day camp at a local girls' school. She informed me that the head of the art program was recovering from a medical infirmity and then Siva employed the "d" word, "we're desperate, can you help us out?" So...for six weeks I had the privilege of producing several works of art with a group of fifty middle school girls, ages ten through thirteen. I have no enthusiasm for bracelets, bookmarks, or book covers. My ambition is made of sterner stuff. In keeping with the ancient Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and he will eat a meal. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for his whole life," I elected to expose my students immediately to materials and processes. I introduced the first group of twelve to the work of Louise Nevelson. I provided them with an eclectic array of found items, a frame, and six cans of black spray paint and set them free. Above is the result of their combined efforts. Louise Nevelson was born Leah Berliawsky in Kiev, in the Ukraine, in 1899. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1902 and settled in Rockland, Maine. She married American businessman Charles Nevelson in 1918, the marriage lasted until 1931. She studied at the Art Students League in New York City from 1929 to 1931. At a time when women were fighting for their right to participate in traditionally masculine roles, Nevelson was exhibiting in galleries throughout the city. She worked with Hans Hofmann, Diego Rivera, and George Grosz. Nevelson was a part of the Expressionist Movement and among the first artists to establish the technique of "found item assemblage". Her career spanned sixty years until her death in 1988. Many of her pieces are included in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Commissioner's Plan According to the Law of Moses

Mixed Media

For this piece, I assembled a group of children ranging in age from 3 to 10 years old. I gave each of them a flat plane and instructed them in techniques of spontaneous design (see images for some examples) none of which required more than 30 minutes to master. I then cut the individual palettes into smaller pieces of varying shapes and sizes and reassembled them in the mosaic-like relief shown in the image of the work in progress entitled, Commissioner's Plan According to the Law of Moses. Depending upon the number of participants as well as the available space, the possible outcomes are infinite. With no prior knowledge of the outcome of their efforts my group produced an exceptional product. From the ethereal point of view, this piece proves that an individual has no realization of the impact of his/her participation in the grand scheme of life. If a butterfly flaps his wings, it is a significant event in all of life. Synergy is alive and well, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Robert Moses served as the tyrannical Commissioner of Public Works for the city of New York through 5 decades. His ambition was to dismantle the Commissioner's Plan, established by DeWitt Clinton in the early 19th century, to force working class people off of the island of Manhattan and into the surrounding boroughs. To achieve this goal, Moses had to eliminate the democratically established numeric grid of streets and avenues and replace it with highways and bridges. Much of my work is quite urban in nature. This piece is an abstract representation of the disconnected neighborhoods and isolated communities following the execution of the Law of Moses.

Jackson and Louise Join Hands

Mixed Media

Emily, age 14, is a Jackson Pollack enthusiast. She can produce one in fifteen minutes. If one is good, ten are better. Pollack, despite establishing a legitimate technique during the Expressionist Movement, was never preoccupied with aesthetics or precision. Ergo, even with genuine skills in color awareness and control of viscosity, Pollack's throws and spills have become cliché. From Emily's eight Pollacks, I extracted one hundred eight. Emily's brother Peter, on the other hand, is a Louise Nevelson aficionado. Nevelson is well known for her black wooden block assemblies. In this piece I combined the two styles to produce a partnership between expressionism and neo-geo. Once again, depending upon the number of participants and the space available, the possibilities are infinite.

Après Mondrian

Mixed Media

"life is a journey" I abhor quaint catch phrases and trendy idioms and make every attempt to interrupt their proliferation. The ones that annoy me the most are those, which accurately apply to my life. It is far too often stated that, "the destination is far less significant than the journey." Unfortunately, this one is true. This collection contains the by-products of 3 much larger, commissioned pieces. My more ambitious works involve the integration of several unrelated media manipulated with a variety of techniques. Prior to the final assembly, each phase of the project requires a degree of experimentation to achieve a specific effect. These prints represent the effort involved in attaining the finished product. Ultimately, they serve as a historical record of a "journey" through the Zen of tenacity.

Love Bros.

Pen and Ink Drawing. Album Cover.

Rock on, rock well. In memory of Doug E. Funk. For decades, Cleveland has been a fertile breeding ground for creative talent. Unfortunately, little effort is made to publicize this fact. Instead, Cleveland is better known for its failed sports teams and mediocre attempts at economic development. Consequently, a considerably sophisticated art community is unjustly infected with this same virus of mediocrity. The Love Bros. was an eighties rock band that should have prevailed but fell victim to anonymity.